join us next sunday at 11:00 a.m. eastern. "state of the union" with candy crowley begins right now. >>> i'm dana bash in for candy crowley with breaking news we're following out of syria. a u.s. official tells cnn there's very little doubt that the assad government used chemical weapons against civilians. syria's government today said it will allow u.n. weapons inspectors to investigate the site where the alleged attack occurred on wednesday. the syrian government denies responsibility and is blaming rebels for the attack that reportedly killed 1300 people. now the incident is testing already-frayed relations between the united states and russia, which is warning the u.s. not to jump to conclusions about the syrian government. meanwhile, the pentagon has prepositioned four warships armed with cruise missiles in the region. joining me now is cnn's pentagon correspondent, chris lawrence, and cnn international correspondent, phil black live in moscow and cnn's fred platkin in damascus. fred, to you first. >> hi, dana. i had an i